Steps To Success In Web Development
If you are planning to become a serious player in the webdesign world, you should now what to learn and discover. Here’s a short list that gives you an overview of your needs.
1. Learn HTML
Before you start creating websites you should master HTML. This is the key element to even start publishing documents on the web. This sounds pretty obvious but there are some elements that you should understand like the label element which will add great usability to a form.
2. Master Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
I can’t stress this enough. DO NOT USE TABLES FOR YOUR LAYOUT!
Is it clear? Don’t, just don’t. Why? Because they work against you instead of for you. You can have so much more control of your layout, design and colors if you use 100% CSS.
1. CSS is easy
2. CSS is fast to create
3. CSS is lightning fast when your website loads
4. CSS is easy to modify
So forget table layouts and start using stylesheets. You will really like the things you can accomplish once you master them.
3. Learn A Server Side Language
This is needed to make dynamic websites like forums. PHP and ASP are a great example. You will need to understand what you can do with these languages and start using them.
Without a server side language your websites are really hard to maintain and will give you a hard job in creating an efficient website structure.
4. Learn A Database Language
I recommend learning MySQL since this is an open source database and is installed on most hosting providers in combination with PHP.
A database is nothing else then some tables with data. You can select data with queries like:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE ID = 3;
Now everything is selected from table when the ID equals three. It’s not hard to understand SQL, you just need to know how it works. PHPMyAdmin can help you a lot when you are creating your database.
So, start with step 1, and stick with CSS as long as you don’t master it. CSS is huge, and you will love it once you know how it works.
For application development you can’t do without a language like PHP and a database like MySQL.
Choosing An Effective Website Colour Combination
An aesthetically pleasing colour scheme can make or break your website. After all, in advertising, colour accounts for 60% of advertisement’s acceptance or rejection. Therefore, colour plays a pivotal role in determining whether or not a potential customer will choose to conduct business with your firm. A web designer needs to ensure that all of your website’s colours work in harmony, while keeping the client’s identity consistent with other marketing efforts.
Quick Rules of Thumb
•Stick to 3 to 5 colours when planning a website
•When in doubt, use white for the background colour, and black for the text colour
Using Your Company’s Logo Colours
If your company already has a logo designed by a professional – great! This is the best starting point for choosing your website’s colour combination. You may choose to use the exact colours found in your logo, or even add some complimentary colours. But, it is important not to stray too far from your logo’s colour scheme in order to keep your company’s identity consistent.
Colour Defines Mood
The colours of your website are important because they can elicit different emotions from your visitors. Colours can make us happy, excited, angry or sad. Below is a list of colours along with the corresponding moods which they evoke:
Warm Colors
Red: aggressiveness, passion, strength, vitality Pink: femininity, innocence, softness, health Orange: fun, cheeriness, warm exuberance Yellow: positive thinking, sunshine, cowardice
Cool Colors
Green: tranquility, health, freshness Blue: authority, dignity, security, faithfulness
Purple: sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty, mystery
Neutral Colors
Brown: utility, earthiness, woodiness, subtle richness White: purity, truthfulness, being contemporary and refined Gray: somberness, authority, practicality, corporate mentality Black: seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness, being classic
Choosing a Color Scheme
Once you understand the colours and their connotations, the next step is to choose a colour scheme for your website. Below is list of different types of colour combinations:
Monochromatic colour combinations use a single color. Variations in lightness of the selected colour can be used to create the sense of different colours. Monochromatic colors go well together, producing a soothing effect, and are very easy on the eyes. The drawback however, is that, it can be difficult to highlight the most important elements on your website.
Analogous color schemes use colours that are related, but not the identical, to create visually attractive combinations. Choosing this type of colour scheme is accomplished by picking colours that are close to each other on the colour wheel. For example, a selection of blues and purples, or reds and oranges would make a good analogous combination. One colour must be picked as the dominant colour while the others are used as accents.
Complementary (or contrasting) color schemes are comprised of 2 colours that are opposite each other on the color wheel. This combination is most appealing when a warm and a cool colour are used. For example, red with green or blue work well as contrasting colours. Using one colour for your background, and its complementary color to highlight key elements will give you colour dominance and colour contrast. One word of caution: it is difficult for the human eye to focus on contrasting colours at the same time. Therefore, it is best to avoid using strong contrasts for background and text colours.
Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?
Web design companies have a lot of control over their clients. I refer to this as “False Power”. The sad reality is that most of their clients don’t even know they are stuck in this potentially painful predicament. This power is usually exercised when a client of a web design company finds a better deal on hosting for their web site and they simply want to switch their hosting provider, or when the “client” wants to upgrade their web site for a better rate than their current web development provider is offering.
Here’s what usually happens to so called “traitor clients”:
- Current web design company sends their client a hefty bill for switching
- The web design company cancels their client’s account
- They may point the domain name to another place
- They sometimes take down the entire website until further notice
You get the point! Too much power is given to the web design company. I truly believe that it is your right to shop for better prices and it is your right to own your domain name even if you didn’t have a hand in registering your domain name.
As the owner of the website, you put your trust into your web design company to represent your business appropriately and honestly, only to find out down the road that honesty isn’t in their vocabulary.
I truly believe there should be a law against web design companies that can be summarized as such: For any domain name registered by the web design company on behalf of their client, the domain name may not be disputed or need to be disputed, the domain name is automatically owned by the client and is automatically bound by their web development contract.
With every new venture, there is always going to be loopholes. From the aforementioned example, what if there is no contract? If you are reading this and are in the process of searching for a web design company, please ENSURE that you have a contract drafted, outlining everything you are entitled to and that you have sole rights to your domain name.
See what most business owners fail to realize is that their domain name is as important as registering their business name itself. I will repeat that… Your domain name is “hot real estate”, would you want someone else owning your property?
The same applies for your domain name. Don’t get caught with your pants down while asking, why don’t I own my domain name. It is as important as owning your own company name. There are people out there searching for suckers to take their domain name – don’t be the one who gets caught!
How to avoid this “Power Stricken” disaster:
The best solution is to go out and register your domain name BEFORE you hire a web design company. This ultimately gives you the power over your domain name. At any given time, you can go back and log into your “domain name registrant” in order to switch your web site to any hosting company you choose.
When searching for an “all around” package for your web design project, make sure that your hosting is suitable for your needs. 95% of all web design projects don’t need a large hosting package that costs between $150-$500 a year. The most you should pay for your hosting in this case is around $100.00 a year, no more.
You only need a large hosting package if:
- Your web site is 1000+ pages in size
- You’re going to buy traffic in the 1000′s every month
- You need over 25 email accounts setup
Ask questions when shopping for a web design company! Here are a few questions you should be asking right away before you sign any contract…
- Do you provide a contract for all your projects?
- If you register my domain name, will it state in my contract that I own the domain name under all circumstances?
- If I am late making payments, is it your company policy to cancel the account?
- Why are your hosting services so high in price? Why wouldn’t I go somewhere else for $100 a year?
- Does it state within your contract that I cannot switch to a different hosting company later on?
- Going forward, am I going to be able to hire any web developer for my website updates, if I am able to negotiate better prices?
This is another important note:
Make sure your web design company gives you the “FTP (File Transfer Protocol)” access to your website. The FTP allows you to hire another web design company to go in and update your website at any time. Without the FTP information, no one can update your website besides the original web development company or hosting company that you hired.
In Conclusion:
Be weary of web design companies that don’t provide contracts for all of their projects. Be careful with your domain name; make sure that in the end, you own all rights to your domain name, not someone else.
I hope this article helps you out!
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